Trading Up
by SymoneIshAmazing
Summary: When you move, you leave a place and a life behind. When you get to this new place, it gives you the opportunity to make your mark; until your past catches up with you. That's what happened to Maylene Sanders, a cardiac surgeon from LA now working at Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital. All she wanted was a new, normal life but that's asking for too much isn't it?


The alarm clock went off at 5:00, playing the new transferred doctors favorite song. 'It's time to begin isn't it? I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit. I'm just the same as I was. Why don't you understand? I'm never changing who I am!' The long haired brunette quickly sat up with a smile on her lips. She jumped out of bed turning the radio up higher so she could hear the music as she took a shower. The water was warm when she turned it on. Quickly slipping off her tshirt , bra, and underwear, she stepped into the shower with a relaxing sigh. Water was pouring on her body while she reached for her strawberry smelling body wash and her poof rag, mixed them, and began washing her body. Ten minutes later, she stepped out nice and clean with a towel wrapped around her body. Her next destination? The closet. While walking towards it she took a glance at her clock that read 5:11. Plenty of time before being at her new job at 6:30. Now the outfit choosing was going to take a minutes. It was pretty chilly outside so she settled for jeans, two inch heels, and a black satin tank top which she would later throw a jacket over. Another glacne at the clock and it was 5:20. An hour and ten minutes. Perfect timing. She then walked out of her room and knocked on her brothers door before entering and quickly covering her eyes. Her sister in law was standing in front of her brother naked, but quickly jumped under the covers when she walked in. The couples face were red as the brunette stammered.

"I'm sorry Ricky but uh.. Wow.. Umm.. Awkward.. I'm about to leave for work so just don't burn down the house?"

She started closing the door and stopped.

"Sock on the door next time?"

And closed it. Walking into the kitchen, she gathered her stuff in her purse. Wallet, phone, lip gloss, hospital ID. and keys in hand. Glance at the clock, 5:30. Time to make sure she looked nice. There was a full body mirror in the living room that she checked herself out in. Her naturally curly hair was waist length, her light skin had not a single blemish, and her eyes were blue. Smiling in triumph to herself she finally left the house and headed to her baby. A black Rx-8. She squealed in delight as she got in and put her purse in the passenger seat, put on her seat belt, check her mirrors, and started the engine as she drove off towards a nearby Starbucks that had Krispy Kreme next door. First she bought herself a glazed doughnut then order herself a Caramel frap. As she was getting her coffee, she noticed someone attractive checking her out. Of course she sent a little smile in his direction but she had to go. She ate her doughnut and started drinking her coffee while she drove to her new job. Clock glance, 6:00. Good enough time so far. The hospital was only 15 minutes away so it wouldn't take her long if there was no traffic. She's driving and drinking her coffee while 'Feels Like Vegas' by Tinashe played on the radio. She sang along to it and in what seemed like a few minutes, she arrived in the parking lot of Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital at 6:17. Right on time. Her coffee was no where near finished so she brought it with her along with a file and her purse. The sliding doors opened when she walked in and headed for the elevator. Of course she had to wait for a while before it arrived. When it did, she boarded and pressed the second floor button. Just as the doors were closing, an arm shot through and the doors opened back up. The person was a male with light brown skin and blue eyes. He smiled at the brunette and she smiled back, and returned to her coffee and her phone. The ding made her look up and see it was her floor and she got off, followed by the male who went in another direction. She walked up to the nurses station and gave a greeting.

"Hello." she said with a British accent. "I'm the new attending. Uh.. Maylene. Maylene Sanders." Someone scoffed and tapped her shoulder, introducing herself as Miranda Bailey.

"Doctor, Miranda Bailey. I'll show you around, come follow." And she started walking so fast that Maylene didn't have a chance to react. When she did, Bailey started rambling on about the different areas of the hospital. Maylene now knew where the ER and OR rooms were, patient rooms, supply closets, and on-call rooms were. All that was left was the Pit and then she can change and begin her day.

"And finally, the Pit." Bailey said with a hint of... Remorse in her voice.

"In here, we treat emergencies that have just come in. And across from here is the Denny Duquette Clinic. Its actually a type of memorial.." She then sighed then turned to the taller female. "Well, you can now start your day." And turned on her heels and walked away.

"But Bailey- Oh never mind.." Maylene grumbled under her breath and began walking back into the changing room. There, she saw him again. The one with the blue eyes. He glanced up and chuckled to himself.

"Now I'm beginning to think you're following me." She took her top off and searched for the dark blue scrubs she was given. That's when Mr. Blue eyes cocked his head to the side. "So you're the new kid on the block huh?" He asked. She slipped her shirt over her torso and put her hands on her hips.

'New kid on the block? What the hell?' She thought to herself. If this was how Mr. Blue eyes spoke, there was a problem.

"Well new yes. A kid? I think not." Obviously he was just kidding around but Sanders liked to tease people, especially now since he started stumbling over his words.

"Oh I know you're not a kid I was just making a.. Metaphor?" His improper use of literary elements was sort of funny to her, but she wouldn't show it considering they had just met. So instead, she just shook her head smiling and walked out of the room, leaving him confused.

Maylene walked up to the nurse's station with her white coat on. She requested whatever cases she already had. There, she saw another guy, who, of course, smiled at her. Being polite she smiled back as he started talking to her. "So how was that caramel frap?" Now she was confused. How did he know that?

"How do you know what i had for coffee this morning?" Then she remembered. He was standing behind her at Starbucks. "Oh! You were behind me this morning at Starbucks." With his head down he was signing papers and nodded. "Correct." The nurse handed her a clip board with her first patient.

"One of your patients from California was admitted here last night. She heard this was where you were being transferred so she flew here and demanded to see you." The nurse said with an irritated voice. Sanders was confused but thanked her and looked over the case. She then took it off the counter and began walking away reading through it. Oh now she knew what this was.

Back in California before she left, Sanders was treating a patient who had had mulitple heart attacks in a row. It took her a few tests to finally diagnose the patient, who's name is Aaron, with Coronary Artery Disease. It broke both her heart and the patients' considering the patient was only thirty-four years old and hadn't even, according to her, lived yet. Sanders was supposed to preform a PTCA procedure to help with her blocked arteries but left before she could. Aaron was supposed to let a trusted doctor Sanders set in place but for whatever reason, she was here instead of California. When Maylene arrived to Aaron's room, there was a female standing there. Thick black curly hair and she looked... Chinese? She walked up to the female and spoke.

"Excuse me I'm looking for a Cristina Yang? I believe she is the resident on the case I'm currently working on." The female looked at her and sighed.

"I'm Cristina Yang. And you must be Maylene Sanders.. The prissy girl from England." She rolled her eyes.

"What gives you the idea I'm from England! Because of my accent? I went to England for a boarding school when I was younger. I'm from California. Yes I'm Maylene Sanders and no I'm not a prissy girl. Now can we work?" Maylene had opened the door and greeted the patient in the bed.

"Aaron Jeno! What the bloody hell are you doing all the way in Seattle? You must be absolutely bonkers for flying all this way." Aaron just smiles at her favorite doctor and waves her hand.

"It's great to see you too Sanders." Was all she replied to. Confused and not really interested in their relationship, Cristina began to read her chart for confirmation. Both Maylene and Aaron nodded their heads to confirm everything was correct.

"Well just to see the extent of the disease, we're gonna have to run some tests." Cristina says looking at Aaron with a bored face. The patient shook her head no.

"No. That's not necessary. You see, I only came here so Sanders could do to the surgery cause I don't trust anyone except her. I didn't eat or drink anything on the plane I mean who would right? Anyway, I already had one of those so if we could just get to the surgery-"

"When was your last check up Jen?" Maylene interrupted her. If she hadn't she would've just kept on talking.

"Well, when was the last time you did the check up?" That was bad. Maylene had been gone for two months and if Aaron hadn't been back for a check up in two months then that could prove to be catastrophic for Aaron.

Maylene's face went pale when she remembered and just nodded her head, even though no one asked her anything.

"Well, it'll be today. Can you take her up for an EKG and give me the results immediately." She said with a certain sternness in her voice and turned to Aaron.

"You'll be fine. Promise." And left the room. She had to look the chart over and over from her first diagnostic to the one two months ago to find a pattern. As she looked through the papers, she bumped into a male, dropping his papers all over the place. Immediately she dropped to the ground and started picking them up. "Sorry about that. Looking at this chart and I'm not even paying attention to what the heck I'm doing." Once all the papers were gathered, she handed them to him but her smile faded into a frown. He took them and his face turned into one of guilt, like he had seen the ghost of someone he killed. Maylene tried walking away but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back but she yanked her arm back. "Do NOT touch me Owen. You have no right." She said in a harsh whisper, trying not to make a scene. For now, she needed a place to hide, so she hid on the Paediatric floor. She was sitting in the waiting room with her head buried in her hands. She had always thought he was dead. Where the hell has he been if he wasn't dead?!

* * *

><p>The last time she saw him was when he and her fiance, Riley, shipped out to Iraq five years ago. It was windy that day, she could remember it so clearly. If Maylene was still in the Army, she'd be shipping out with them too. They were surrounded by wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, family that were crying their eyes out. For some reason, Maylene wasn't crying. Maybe it was because she knew that Owen, her best friend at the time, would be there with the love of her life.<p>

"You take care of each other okay? I'm serious. This isn't me joking when we play games and stuff, I mean it." She was so serious when they left. Wouldn't you if the men you love were being shipped out to a dangerous place to fight for a corrupt government?

"I promise that I will take care of your knuckle-headed fiance okay? That way when we come back, the two of you can get married!" Owen said patting Riley on the back. Hard. Riley nearly lost his balance and fell against Maylene. The three of them just laughed and when the call for the soldiers was made, that's when Owen decided to give them space. Before he left, he hugged her tight and made her the biggest promise of her life.

"If he dies, I'll be their for you. I'll take care of you. Promise, kid." And he walked away. It wasn't romantic or anything and they all knew it. But now it was time for Riley's goodbye. He stood in front of her for a few minutes and smiled, her blue eyes staring back into his hazels. It was one of those romantic scenes out of a storybook and she was living it.

"Promise me you'll come back to me?"

"Promise."

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry do you have a child here with us?" Maylene looked up and saw a blonde woman looking at her with a smile. That memory just shut itself up quickly and she stammered.<p>

"Oh no I'm... Running from someone. Well hiding actually. I'm Maylene. The new-" The blonde had started finishing her sentence for her.

"Cardiac attending! Maylene Sanders. Oh wow your accent is nice. But I thought you were from California? I'm Arizona Torres by the way. Who are you running from?" The new attending was flooded with questions from the blonde doctor.

"Uh I'm from California but I went to a boarding school in England and the accent just stuck. I'm running from-" The ding of the elevator made her jump. Her head turned and saw it was Owen. Eyes wide, she pointed her finger secretly.

"Him?" Torres asked. "That's the chief why are you running from him?" As he started walking over, Maylene quickly asked her to stall him so she could run to the stairs. She agreed and walked over to the Chief and began asking him questions. "Hey chief I was wondering. It's little Amanda's birthday next week. You know, the one with the bad lungs, heart, liver and stuff and I wanted to give the kid a party. She's turning six and she hasn't had one yet." Owen saw Maylene dart out the door and softly pushed past Arizona and chased Maylene to the stairs. It was too late because now the woman was about three stories above him.

Stomping back towards Arizona, he dragged his hand down his face and frowned.

"Where was she going?" The Peds surgeon shrugged.

"I don't even know her. Why would I know?" He knew she was serious yet playing coy.

"Fine. A small birthday party in the conference room." Smiling in triumph she spilled about how she was running from him and swiftly added. "What did you do to the new attending?" No answer was given as he walked away.

* * *

><p>Maylene found herself in the cafeteria during lunch time. Half of the day she'd check on her patients others running from Owen. She sat at an empty table an watched as four people in the same scrubs as her sat with her. The only two she recognized was the handsome man from the coffee shop and Arizona. The other three were new faces. They stared at her until coffee man spoke. "Well I'm Mark Sloan. Plastics" Then he started going around the table. Shepard, brain surgeon. Cali, bones. And Arizona Toress. Peds." Smiling at her, they were slipping food into their mouths and waited for her reply. "Maylene Sanders, cardio." They started asking her easy, personal questions like,<p>

"So Sanders, where are you from?" To which she would reply, "I was born in California but went to a boarding school in England for a few years."

"Why'd you leave California to be here where it's sad a gloomy?" This question made her think. Why did she leave Cali for this? Then she answered.

"Time for a change."

"How do you know Owen?"

"Old friends. Very Old friends."

"Then why are you running away from him?"

The question nearly made her choke on the water she was drinking. "Uh... I have a problem with authority.." They looked at her and laughed. She knew it was a terrible lie but they understood that she didn't trust them to be just telling her problems. It all ended when Owen walked into the cafeteria. The running thing was getting old so she just sat there. His eyes immediately drifted to Maylene's while everyone ate in silence. It took a few seconds before Maylene spoke.

"What do you want Owen? Oh I'm sorry. Chief." Everyone then looked to Owen awaiting his reaction. The words stammered as he talked. "We need to talk." Hate was in her eyes as he looked at her.

"Anything you need to say to me you can say in front of them. I'm sure it won't put you in some kind of... Predicament of your past?" Now she was testing him and they all knew it. What happened so long ago to make hear loathe him wasnt exactly a private matter nor was it that public. But apparently everyone else thought it was private so they excused themselves, leaving Sanders and Owen alone. Offering him a seat seemed to be polite to her even though she had no reason to be nice to him whatsoever, but this wasn't grade school. It took him a while before speaking. "I'm-" 'Is he really...?'

"Are you? I mean, this is the first time I've seen you in what, years? And all you are is sorry?" A scoff escaped her lips as she stood up and walked away. At least she had a good reason to leave. Her pager was going off.

* * *

><p>Sanders ran upstairs to a noise of beeping and frantic talking. "What happened?!" She asked her nurse while examining her patient And the screen. "Her heart rate is dropping." Sanders took charge of the situation when Yang ran in and asked what happened. "Her heart stopped." She yelled. Christina dropped Aarons results onto the floor in an attempt to help Sanders.<p>

"We need to crack her chest right now! Get me a crash cart and pump her full of meds. The faster we get in there, the better chance she has of living."

Everyone was running around, rushing to get Aaron into surgery. Sanders ran to go wash her hands and prep while the nurses got Aaron ready.

"Why did you do this to me Jen? You're so stupid sometimes." Her self talk was interrupted by Cristina, who started to prep as well.

"Those results... They told us this was gonna happen didn't they?" She asked drying her hands off. Cristina just replied by nodding her head and they both burst into the OR and did what they do best; saved lives.

* * *

><p>"She almost died and it was my fault... Maybe I should've never left California.." May said to herself after the surgery. It was a success and she was standing in an empty hallway, talking to herself again.<p>

"Even if she would've, it wouldn't have been your fault." The sudden voice scared the hell out of her and she jumped, quickly turning around; it was Owen. She started to walk away but he pulled her arm and dragged her into the conference room and she yanked her arm back.

"Leave me alone Owen. You don't know anything about it so just go."

"If she died, it would've been her time."

"You don't get to say that! It wasn't her time or someone else's or Riley's!" Owens eyes softened when he heard his old soldiers name. "I-Is that why..." Tears were welling up in her eyes. "He was one of your best friends! I thought you were mine too! You disappeared after he died. No goodbye or condolences just gone. No letter or flowers. Hell, you didn't even show up to his memorial. You left me by myself with a kid I had to raise. A kid I COULDN'T raise because I was going crazy! Calling her Riley and seeing Riley in her! Now she's gone living with people she thinks is her parents while I'm here. Trying to forget and move on but then I see you and now.. I fucking hate you Owen!" She pushed past him and stormed out of the room. Owen was now heavy hearted, especially learning that she had a kid.

Everything being all said and done, it was clocking out time. Maylene would be sure to call Aarons husband and parents before she left. She was in the changing room for attendings when Mark came up to her and softly smiled. "Rough first day?" Of course it was! Her head went up and down as she nodded yes. "Patient almost died because she didn't trust any other doctor to operate on her. I moved here, I... Abandoned her." Slowly getting up she smiled and walked to the elevator him following behind. "Well. I know this bar we can go to. Get your mind off it?" It'd been a while since she had a drink so of course she accepted. And she did have a pretty rough day so why not? "Sure." The elevator arrived and so did Mr. Blue eyes. He smiled at her and spoke. "So. I know you've had a rough day, but to get your mind off it. Drinks?" His attention then turned to Sloan who had a smirk on his face. "Mark just asked me. You can come with though." Marks smirk turned into a slight frown as Jackson's turned into a smile. "Sure. I'd love to." And the elevator doors closed with the three inside.


End file.
